Playing Dress-Up

When we were little my sister Lindsey and I used to play dress up in my mom’s closet. We would put on her shoes and try on her jewlery and throw her purses over our shoulders. Mom always looked so pretty when she got dressed for church on Sunday, and my sister and I were eager to root through her belongings so we could look pretty, too. But Lindsey was over the top.

She would rock black heels with a navy shoulder bag, several strands of pearls and miscellaneous costume jewlery, and a red hat (you know like the kind your mom would get you for Easter Sunday?). Lindsey would clomp around the house in high heels toting her empty pocketbook and peeking out from under the rim of her fancy red hat. Her crowning glory was found in the front coat closet: Mom had a fur coat. And my sister would traipse around lookin like a crazy miniature bag lady.

Well anyway, we thought we were really cool and grown up~ a fur coat and high heels were supposed to fool everybody.

So I have a recipe that actually WILL fool everybody, unlike me and my sister in my mom’s Sunday clothes…

If you take that bowl of sliced ZUCCHINI and cook it in lemon juice for a little while, and then add some sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg, the zucchini tastes just like granny smith apples.

Then you add this yummy oatmeal and brown sugar topping, and bake it.

Mock Apple Crisp

Ingredients

4 cups peeled and sliced zucchini (I only peeled half of mine so you’d know I was telling the truth about it being zucchini and not apples… the result of that being I did not fool my children)

1/3 cup lemon juice

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 cup quick oats

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 cup melted butter

To Make

Preheat the oven to 375. Lightly butter a 8 X 8 baking dish. Put your peeled and sliced zucchini and the lemon juice in a medium saucepan over medium high heat and stir to evenly coat the zucchini. Once the lemon juice starts to simmer, turn the heat down to medium low and cook for about 15 minutes (or until the zucchini is tender). Add 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg and cook for another minute, stirring occassionally. Remove from heat and set aside. In a medium sized bowl mix the oats, flour, brown sugar, baking powder and baking soda. Stir in the melted butter until you have nice coarse sugary crumbles. Pour the zucchini mixture into the prepared baking dish and evenly spread the oat mixture over the top. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the top is pretty and golden and the edges are bubbly.